Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system, a communication method, and a storage medium, and more particularly to a communication system that synchronizes various setting values, a communication method, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
There has been known a communication system that stores various setting values which are used by each of a plurality of MFPs as information processing apparatuses, in a server. The server is capable of sharing (synchronizing) some setting values with a plurality of MFPs. In the communication system, some users can change various setting values, and for example, when a setting value stored in the server is changed by a user, the changed setting value is transmitted to each MFP. Each MFP sets the received setting value i.e. the changed setting value, as a new setting value, to thereby synchronize the setting value used thereby with the setting value stored in the server (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No 2014-220579).
In the communication system, when synchronizing a plurality of setting values stored in the server with each MFP, the server transmits a synchronization setting value group formed by the plurality of setting values to each MFP. Upon receipt of the synchronization setting value group, each MFP deletes ones of various setting values set in the MFP, which correspond to the setting values included in the synchronization setting value group, and sets the setting values included in the received synchronization setting value group in place of the deleted setting values. Incidentally, various setting values set in an MFP include a setting value which is unique to the MFP, and need not be replaced (hereinafter referred to as “unique setting value”), and a setting value corresponding to the unique setting value is sometimes included in the synchronization setting value group. In this case, if the setting values corresponding to the setting values included in the synchronization setting value group are all deleted from the various setting values set in the MFP, the unique setting value is also deleted. By this deletion, the unique setting value is reset, and as a result, the unique setting value is rewritten. To cope with this, in the communication system, setting values stored in the server and ones of the plurality of setting values set in the MFP, which correspond to the setting values stored in the server, are compared, and setting values having differences are extracted. Further, in the communication system, if an extracted setting value correspond to a unique setting value, the extracted setting value is excluded from the synchronization setting value group to be transmitted to the MFP (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-123573).
However, in the above-described communication system, although unique setting values are not deleted in synchronization processing, it is required to compare the setting values stored in the server and the plurality of setting values set in the MFP to thereby determine whether or not there is a difference between each compared setting values. Therefore, load on synchronization processing increases as the number of setting values to be compared increases.